Money to Burn

Money to Burn Australia is the world’s most expensive country in which to be a smoker, and from tomorrow on, one pack alone will tear an almost €17 hole in an Australian smoker’s wallet. With two more price increases already in sight over the next two years, Australia’s, as well as New Zealand’s smokers, are probably jealously eyeing Ukraine. There, they could get almost 370 smokes for the same amount of money.

The Phones Emitting the Most Radiation

The Phones Emitting the Most Radiation The German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz) has a comprehensive database of smartphones - new and old - and the level of radiation they emit. Following the criteria set for this chart (see footnotes), the current smartphone creating the highest level of radiation is the Mi A1 from Chinese vendor Xiaomi. In fact, the top list is dominated by handsets made by Chinese companies, with Xiaomi, OnePlus, Huawei and ZTE accounting for 12 of the 15 phones with the largest values. It must be said though, that premium Apple phones such as the iPhone 7 and the recently released iPhone 8 are also here to be seen. Read more.

Greece's Mountain Of Debt

Greece's Mountain Of Debt Unemployment has fallen from 28 percent at the height of the crisis to 18.5 percent today and although the economy has returned to growth, crippling austerity is still a harsh reality in most Greek households. The economy remains 25 percent smaller than when the crisis began and the country has to face the reality that it will remain debt-ridden for the forseeable future and will most likely be paying off loans for decades to come. Athens has a total debt of €322 billion ($366 billion), 181 percent of economic output. EU creditors hope that will fall to 100 percent by 2060 and they are giving Greece more time to pay and have reduced interest payments. That target is a best-case scenario, however, and given the country's turbulent economic history, it is still entirely possible that it will have to borrow hundreds of billions of euros from private creditors to reduce that mountain of debt for years to come. Read more.

Click & Mortar

Click & Mortar Like many things in life, the choice between different shopping channels isn’t black or white for most people. According to a recent report from Periscope by McKinsey, very few Americans shop exclusively in-store or online. As the following chart illustrates, most consumers are multichannel shoppers, shopping at brick-and-mortar stores as well as online. Interestingly those who have a clear tendency to shop at physical stores outnumber those who make most or all of their purchases online. Read more.

How to Get the Most Out of College (the NYTimes Aug 19 2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/opinion/college-students.html?emc=edit_th_180819&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=692658590819

Paid Vacation In Perspective

Paid Vacation In Perspective Europeans should spare a thought for workers in the United States. While people in Spain and France hit the beaches en masse for weeks on end during the summer, odds are that most Americans who aren't self-employed will still be stuck at their desks. The U.S. is still the only advanced economy that does not guarantee paid vacation. Even though some companies do gift their employees up to 15 paid days off per year, nearly one in four private-sector workers does not receive any paid vacation time according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Read more.

Vegans & Vegetarians: Young And Generally Not Wealthy

The poll found that fewer than 1 in 10 Americans adheres to one of those diets with 5 percent of people saying they are vegetarian and 3 percent saying they are vegan. The following infographic takes a closer look at the poll's findings to see just who the country's vegans and vegetarians are. Both diets are more common among younger eaters with 7 percent of people aged 18-29 saying they are vegetarian while 3 percent say they are vegan. In the 30-49 age-bracket, 8 percent are vegetarian while 4 percent are vegan. Those figures fall drastically to 3 and 2 percent respectively among over 65s. Read more.